Do Not Try What This Blogger Did to Get Rid of a Yeast Infection

Among vagina-related health issues, yeast infections are up there among the most annoying. Often they can be treated with one of a number of over-the-counter options, which doctors may recommend for uncomplicated yeast infections. What's definitely not recommended as a treatment: orthorexia, or an obsession with healthy eating. While seeking to treat a chronic yeast infection, vegan blogger Henya Perez, 28, adopted the "Raw Till 4" diet, which dictates that only raw foods be consumed until 4 p.m. each day (at which point cooked carbohydrates are allowed). Rather than eliminate the yeast infection, this style of eating actually led Perez to develop orthorexia.

She told Metro that in the throes of her orthorexia, "I spent most of my time thinking about food, making plans, shopping for food, posting pictures of food, and of course, eating food." Perez reports that during this period, she was consuming between 2,500 to 5,500 calories a day. "I felt tired most of the time from digesting so much food," she says, the majority of it raw fruits and vegetables: Breakfast might be a smoothie containing 10 bananas, while lunch might be one or two kilograms — that's 2.2 to 4.4 pounds — of persimmons. Eating this way led to fatigue, irritability, nausea, and diarrhea, Perez reports.

According to OB/GYNs, extreme diets are nowhere close to necessary for treating or avoiding yeast infections. OB/GYN Kecia Gaither, MD tells Allure, "Yeast infections are essentially fungal infections that occur when the vaginal flora changes, either due to either due to pregnancy, stress, conditions affecting immunity like diabetes, HIV, [or] overuse of vaginal products like douches, sprays and antibiotics." The vagina, she says, has a naturally occurring bacteria called Lactobacilli that typically preventing the overproduction of yeast; when yeast infections occur, extra action may be necessary, for example taking over-the-counter or prescription antifungal medications. OB/GYN Hilda Hutcherson, MD tells Allure that she typically recommends over-the-counter treatments like Monistat, and if that doesn't work, then a prescription drug like Diflucan. She also suggests "wearing underwear only when absolutely necessary and never at bedtime" (underwear can create a moist environment in which yeast thrives) and avoiding lubricants containing glycerin (glycerin is a sugar alcohol that yeast loves).

There isn't good evidence that diet plays a role in either encouraging or preventing yeast infections. But it's clear that Perez's restrictive diet was doing her no favors. "Eating this many calories and high fiber foods every day took a toll on my body and I would have to go to the toilet a dozen times a day," Perez told Metro. It's a key marker of orthorexia that people suffering from it often continue to restrict their diets, even if they feel sick because of them, because they fear that certain foods (or entire food groups) are "unhealthy."

After eating contaminated fruit, Perez reevaluated her commitment to Raw Till 4 and is now following a more relaxed vegan diet and speaking out about the harms of restrictive eating. "I learned that I am not immune to the influence of diets, even after all that I’ve been through," she said to Metro. "It does make me sad to be honest, especially since I am chronically affected by it."